It was while she was proceeding in ballast from the River Clyde terminal of Finnart
to the Persian Gulf that explosions and fires occurred in her No 3 and 4 tanks
during tank cleaning operations about 180 miles off Monrovia in lat 4.36N, long 13.20W
at 11 PM on December 30, 1969,
causing the deck to be blown upwards.
Her crew, none of whom was injured, immediately abandoned ship,
being picked up by the Italian motor vessel Cellina.
When the fire had appaerently died down,
the Master and half her crew reboarded the tanker,
which the proceeded under her own power at slow speed to Monrovia.

Great picture shows deck blownout from manifold all the way aft to house, almost gunnel to gunnel.
Very surprised the ship did not sink.
Suspect very calm weather conditions.

source

CTX

type

D

volume

material

B

dead

link

Kong Haakon VII, a nearly new VLCC, was tank cleaning off Africa
when an explosion occured in one of her cargo tanks.
This was a repeat of the Marpessa/Mactra explosions.
except the ship did not sink.

This was one of the three big tank cleaning explosions in December 1969,
which led Shell to conclude that static electrictity created by
the tank cleaning jet of water was the probable source of ignition.
This in turn resulted in the requirement for inerting.